Labor actions active in Evansville

These are fun days in the news biz—always something happening at a quick pace.

I thought I’d just give a quick rundown on labor-related issues in Evansville.

About 90 percent of the high school student body took part in a sit-in protest in the commons this afternoon, Principal Scott Everson told me in an e-mail.

The protest only lasted about an hour, and Everson said he was pleased with how students followed instructions to return to class for the next period.

The sit-in came after administrators learned of a walk-out in the works and used it as a “teaching moment,” letting students know there would be truancy consequences for those who walked out, he said.

More about that in tomorrow morning’s paper.

At the city level, two city council meetings have been scheduled to approve a contract with the union that represents the majority of city employees. Both meetings—Wednesday and Thursday nights—were canceled. Council President Mason Braunschweig said the Teamsters union is talking with the city, but no meeting has been set up to negotiate. More background about that here. I’ll continue to follow that.

At the Capitol, Janis Ringhand, D-Evansville, was taking in the thousands of protesters from her office window. Just six weeks into office as the 80th District representative in the Assembly, Ringhand joked about the sharp learning curve.

She was waiting to be called back into session Thursday afternoon when I talked to her after meeting in caucus, she said. She said the Assembly Democrats were waiting on standby, and said they had no plans to leave the area or state.

Here’s what she had to say: “I do not plan on voting in favor of this bill as it stands. I do not know if it will be amended at this point. It’s being called a budget repair bill. I don’t agree that that’s what it is. It’s quite obviously to break unions and take away worker rights,” she said. More of her comments also in tomorrow’s paper.

Now you tell me … what other protests/labor-related actions have seen in Evansville this week?